Unseen Foe
by R. Dineen
Summary: Introducing the Royal Marines of the Star Trek World. Action Story, but still firmly rooted in Star Trek tradition, tells the story of the first attack by an unknown enemy you may recognise.


A plasma Mortar flew over head, it connected with the ground about seventeen metres behind him, dust and dirt flew into the air and a deafening roar filled the air as debris covered him. Led on his front, His Rifle in his hand, he looked through his scope, he couldn't see anything through the haze and the darkness. Wearing green fatigues they stood out in this grey rocky terrain, they had detected something strange in this direction and had moved off of their patrol route to investigate, when they were ambushed.  
  
The darkness was like a fog, not like back home, it was thick, almost tangible. A voice came over his earpiece:  
"Sir, Garrett is down, I repeat Garrett is down, that last mortar landed a couple of metres from him". It was Corporal Simmons, the enemy, whoever they where had caught his unit in a perfect manoeuvre, he had led his team into the trap. Several shots flew towards him from ahead, he ducked and the shots hit the rock bed next to him.  
  
"Understood, give me a flare, I want to see these bastards". He looked up as a ball of light emitting phased energy was launched into the air, he looked through his scope again and saw movement ahead, he knelt up and made a series of movements with his hand, ordering a squad to advance on the left. He moved with them. Six marines moved through the rocky terrain, using the boulders as cover. He could see the area ahead now, it was a hill, made of rock, not big enough to be a mountain, the enemy had made a make shift trench just in front of it and where firing the mortars from on top of the hill.  
  
"Thomson, I want 3 grenades in that trench". He whispered into his comm. system. He heard the hum of the grenades powering up and the clunk as they hit home. The resulting explosion was followed by screams of pain, he ordered the right flank to circle around the hill and take out the mortar from behind. His squad advanced and Simmons scanned the area, now that their jamming unit had been disabled. The squad peered into the trench, what looked like ten men where laying dead in it, mangled by the blast. He heard movement behind him, he spun around and trained his gun on the area, two others did the same, he caught a glimpse of movement in the darkness, they weren't human.  
  
"Put down your weapons and stand down"! He yelled at the top of his voice. Two shots came there way and O'Riley was hit in the leg, they returned fire and after a few minutes of exchanging fire they stopped, he knew he had hit at least two. The squad advanced, he found four dead humanoids, all wearing a greyish uniform with strange shoulder pads that looked too big and out of proportion, they wore helmets. He had never seen them before, Simmons scanned them and shook his head.  
  
"Lieutenant, I have a ship incoming, its weapons are armed, status"? It was Captain Antaro of the Starfleet ship orbiting overhead.  
"We where ambushed by unidentified hostiles, situation is now under control, I have four casualties, request evac". Simmons was about to examine the alien corpses when they suddenly disappeared in a flash of green light, the entire unit knelt down with guns trained scanned the area for movement.  
  
"What the Hell was that"? The lieutenant bellowed into his Comm. Unit. Nobody responded, because nobody knew.  
  
Lieutenant Adam Drake of the Royal Marines stood up, his gun hanging at his side, he stared up at the sky, he could see the glint of the transport ship entering the atmosphere.  
  
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Drake stood at a relaxed attention on the bridge of the ship, he couldn't remember what class of ship it was, he didn't really care, he fought on the ground, Starships where not his forte.  
In fact he felt very awkward and out of place, several personnel sat or moved around the bridge chatting, it felt too...relaxed. He still wore his battle armour, a simple black vest made from state of the art high tensile fibres and plated with a titanium alloy. His dirty green blotted fatigues covered the rest of him and his helmet was hanging from his belt, it made him feel even more out of place, as the fleet personnel wore their simple, comfortable, blue jump suites.  
Captain Antaro stepped off the lift and strolled onto the bridge, an Ensign said 'Captain on the Bridge', the Fleet crew didn't seem to pay much attention, Drake snapped to full attention with a crisp salute. The captain was a relatively small man, especially when compared to most of the people Adam worked with, his thinning, dark hair was combed back, the man had a limp.  
"At ease Lieutenant". Drake relaxed, he knew the Captain was humouring him, Fleet where relaxed with simple discipline, his salute was unnecessary, but Drake was a marine, not a Ship-Monkey.  
"Thanks for the pickup sir, did you find out who they were"? Antaro shot Drake a puzzled look.  
"I was gonna ask you the same thing, we didn't even get a chance to scan em before they snipped out system". Antaro's thick southern USA accent amused Drake, as he imagined that Drake's British accent amused Antaro.  
"We got in a scan of some of their casualties before they disappeared, but it was preliminary, very little useful information acquired sir".  
"If you got in a scan how is there, little information?" A hint of sarcasm entered the Captains voice, an ensign chuckled, Drake shot him a look and he quickly shut up and moved.  
"When your in the middle of a fire fight sir, your main aim is to find out how many ways you can kill the enemy, not find out what they ate for lunch....sir. Our scans where to confirm that they were incapacitated".  
"Didn't you take any scans before entering combat"? The captain had noted Drake's sarcasm and had toned down his criticism, seeing how far he could push the lieutenant, he may have been a superior officer, but few people where stupid enough to mess with a marine.  
"They had a jamming field up, once it was destroyed we where forced to...incapacitate...them, no time for scans, sir". Drake was eager to go below and find out how his people had come through, most where fine but he knew that two of them where in bad shape when they arrived on ship.  
"I've spoken to Starfleet, they want us back at Earth for debriefing, don't worry Lieutenant, we'll get these bastards". The captain snapped a quick salute, Drake returned it and walked off the bridge, he hated Ship- Monkeys....  
He got the feeling they didn't like him much either.  
  
Double timing it to sick-bay he arrived to see four of his Marines led on beds being tended to by medical staff. Then he saw a body bag.  
  
"It's the serge sir...he didn't make it" Said a voice behind him, it was Simmons, he looked exhausted.  
"He took an almost direct hit from some kind of highly charged phased energy mortar, it caused massive trauma to his internal organs, I'm afraid there was little I could do". Reported the doctor, almost remorsefully. Drake didn't like Ship-Monkeys, but he had to admit he had a respect for the medical staff of these fly-boys.  
"Damnit". Drake looked down, he fought back the burst of anger and the ping of guilt, he didn't have the luxury right now. He stood over the body bag briefly, in silent prayer, he wasn't a religious man but he knew Garrett was, so Drake knew he'd appreciate it. He spent some time talking to the Marines in sick bay, trying to keep their spirits up, it was hard to lose a team member, especially to a fight with hostiles who don't even show their faces.  
"Simmons, I'm promoting you to Sergeant, Antaro wants a de-briefing at 1400 hours, I want all the NCOs in there at 1300". Simmons was a tall well built guy in his early twenties, shaved head and little stubble, he looked tough as nails, and he was. They both snapped a quick salute and Drake left sickbay for his quarters. 


End file.
